Autumn Sky
by Gamma Orionis
Summary: A story of Andromeda's choice to leave her family, based on the songs on the Blackmore's Night album "Autumn Sky". Written for xBeautifulTragedy's "Make An Album Into A Story" competition. Black sisters, Andromeda/Ted. Complete.
1. Highland

Author's Notes: Written for xBeautifulTragedy's "Make an Album Into a Story" Competition on the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum.

Album: Autumn Sky by Blackmore's Night

Disclaimer: I do not own the lyrics to any of the songs, nor do I own any of the characters.

)O(

It was making Andromeda crazy, having to sit here through another excruciating family dinner.

She gazed out the window of Black Manor, out across the grounds, and tried to block out the strained conversation. Every day, the five Black children were summoned to the supper table, and forced to spend one hour in so-called "pleasant conversation" with each other and their parents. It always culminated, usually about forty minutes in, in a vicious argument, usually between Bellatrix and Sirius, or else Bellatrix and Cygnus, and ended in twenty minutes of angry, stony silence, while everyone picked a place in the room and stared at it with empty faces, trying not to make eye contact with anyone.

The clock ticked on, _tick, tock, tick, tock,_ and Andromeda waited to be allowed to leave.

At last it struck seven ringing bells, and there was a scramble to leave the dinner table.

Andromeda hesitated at the bottom of the stairs. Bellatrix, Narcissa, Regulus and Sirius had already run for their bedrooms, for safety from their parents. Andromeda watched them disappear through doorways, and then glanced back into the dining room, where the adults were still sitting.

She turned away from the stairs, and made for the door, the one that lead outside, into the grounds and, if you could climb a stone wall and find a safe spot to touch down on the other side, out onto the highlands.

The door creaked softly as Andromeda eased it open, and she glanced around to be sure no one had heard it. Satisfied she was undetected, she slipped out onto the grounds of Black Manor, into the early evening air.

She stole across the gardens and through the trees, until she came to the wall that separated the purity of Black Manor from the serenity of the highlands. Andromeda, who was skilled at sneaking out, having done it more times than she cared to admit, heaved herself up by the branches of an old oak tree, and over the wall, falling cat-like on the other side.

Almost the second her feet touched down, Andromeda was filled with a sense of equal parts elation and relaxation. There was the freedom, of course, of being outside Black Manor, in a place where no one could tell her that she wasn't acting like a proper Pureblood, but there was also an excitement to sneaking out, an adrenaline rush that never got old, no matter how many times Andromeda climbed over that wall.

She set off across the moors, feeling the wind lift her hair off her neck, caressing her with the sweet, clear scent of the outdoors.

Andromeda would have happily left the Manor, and her family behind for the highlands. She loved everything about them, and couldn't understand her parents, who said that they were dangerous. But then, perhaps the danger was a part of the attraction.

She splashed through a brook that carved its way between two swells, and up a small crest, to the patch of heather that Andromeda considered the center of the moors. It wasn't literally the center, of course, but it was always from there that she began. If she cared to go on a ghost hunt in early morning mists, then that patch of heather was where she would search for the ghosts from. If she cared to create for herself a fantasy world of kings and knights, she would treat the heather like a palace, and all events in her fantasy would surround it. And when, like tonight, she merely wanted to stretch out and have the highlands purge her of everything to do with her family, she would lie in the heather and breathe in its scent, and shut her eyes, and feel like she was being cleansed.

"Hello, Dromeda."

Andromeda opened her eyes lazily, and smiled. "Hello Ted."

She had met Ted Tonks years ago, in this very place, and while she had initially shied away from him – he was a Mudblood, after all – they had eventually become close friends. Ted, and his dog Branwell, often joined in Andromeda's elaborate play-acting, as a brave knight and his horse, or a king and his servant. Ted was the only person who knew of Andromeda's fantasy world, and he loved it every bit as much as she did.

He sat down in the heather next to her. "What brings you out tonight?"

Andromeda sighed. She didn't like to talk about her family to Ted. It brought up the memory of her initial reaction to him – fear and disgust at his blood – and that was a memory Andromeda would just as soon forget.

"Just had to get away," she muttered.

"Family business, eh?"

She sighed again. "You know me too well."

"Face it, Dromeda, your family's never going to get any better."

"You don't even know them!"

"I've heard you talk about them enough to know they don't have the first clue how to deal with a girl like you."

"A girl like me?" Andromeda asked with a teasing grin. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"A girl who needs some excitement," Ted answered seriously. "They want you all settled down. If they understood anything, they'd just let you come out here. Look, Dromeda." He waved his arm in the direction of the Manor. "That's not a life for you."

"What sort of life is for me, then?"

Ted blew his fringe up off his forehead and looked at Andromeda with an expression of equal parts exasperation, confusion and affection. Andromeda looked back at him, waiting for his answer. Then, very slowly, as though waiting for confirmation that what he was doing was all right, Ted leaned forward and kissed Andromeda very lightly on the lips.

"Please, be my girlfriend," he said softly.

Andromeda looked at him, surprised, then smiled.

"Of course," she said, and kissed him, just as lightly.


	2. Vagabond Make a Princess of Me

Bellatrix glanced over her shoulder. The shop was empty. She looked back at the moonstone pendant on its silk cushion, and shifted so that her body blocked the view of it from the door to the back room.

_It's ever so pretty_, she thought. _Andi would love it_.

She tilted her head, admiring the way the afternoon light made the stone appear to change colours, silver to pink to blue to silver again. The placard next to it read _Medieval England, circa 1200. Belonged to Morgana Pendragon. No known curses. Price on request_.

Bellatrix sighed. "Price on request", she knew from many years of dealing with shops in Knockturn Alley, and Borgin and Burke's in particular, meant "We will try to swindle as much money out of you as is humanly possible", and she was in no mood for that.

The necklace was lovely, though. It would make a perfect birthday present for Andromeda.

She picked it up, examining the delicate – albeit tarnished – silver chain and the cloudy, shifting colour of the stone more closely. It was warm from the sun, and the closer she looked at it, the more she thought how lovely it would be, lying against Andromeda's chest.

Bellatrix looked over her shoulder again. She could take it, right now. The thing was probably worthless in any case, and Borgin and Burke were just trying to pass it off as an original. She would be doing to world a favour if she just took it…

Carefully, slowly and with the smallest movements she could manage, so as not to draw attention to herself, she looped it around her neck, dropped the pendant down the front of her blouse, and, using a glass display case as a mirror, arranged her hair to cover any bit of the chain that might be exposed around her neck.

"I trust you're finding things well?"

Bellatrix jumped, and whirled around. "I–"

She trailed off. She recognized the man who had spoken as an assistant – Tom something, wasn't it?

"Is there anything I could help you find?" he asked cordially. His eyes betrayed no emotion, and everything about him suggested courteous disinterest.

"No," Bellatrix said. Her heart was hammering, and she hoped against hope that he wouldn't notice that the necklace was missing until long after she had left. "I… was just going."

"Ah, well," he smiled, though it did not spread to his eyes, "have a good day."

Bellatrix stepped away from him, and turned for the door. She was almost out it when he added, "Best give the necklace back first."

Her stomach sank.

"Pardon?" she asked, turning around, although she knew there was little escape.

"The necklace," he repeated. "The moonstone. Best give it back."

"What necklace?" asked Bellatrix, trying to sound confused and mildly irritated, yet at the same time reasonable and friendly.

"The one you're wearing around your neck, Miss. Now, are you going to give it back, or shall I be forced to resort to wands, and you wouldn't want that, now would you?"

He was looking her dead in the eye, and Bellatrix was quite aware that he knew – absolutely knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt – that she had the necklace.

They both stood, facing each other, Bellatrix wondering if she would be able to run, no sign on Tom's face as to what he was thinking. In one of the display cases, Bellatrix could see her own face, and she knew she had given herself away. Her eyes were wild with fear, and even if Tom had not known that she had the necklace before, he would now.

Bellatrix approached him, digging the necklace out of her blouse, and dropped it into his hand. He looked at it, and then at her, and smiled, this time with his eyes as well as his mouth.

"Much obliged, Miss," he said, nodding courteously.

"I apologize," Bellatrix muttered, looking down at her feet.

"Your apology is accepted." He lay the pendant on its cushion. "Tom Riddle."

"Bellatrix Black."

"What would you have done with it if I hadn't caught you?" he asked, tilting his head and examining her.

Bellatrix shrugged. "I was thinking I'd give it to my sister."

"You wouldn't just have kept it for yourself?"

"No…"

"You are a very loyal person, then, Miss Black," he said lightly.

"I like to think so."

"You know, Bellatrix Black," he said, stepping close to her, "I could use a person like you."

Bellatrix's eyes went wide, and she stepped backwards, clawing behind her for the door handle.

"No, hear me out," said Tom Riddle, taking hold of her shoulders. "Loyalty is a wonderful quality. I can see it in you the way no one else can. If you would be loyal to me, Bellatrix Black, I could give you things no one else alive could. You could rise above the rest of them." He leaned very close, so close that she could have counted his eyelashes, and could fell his breath on her cheek. "I could make a princess of you, Bellatrix Black."

"Get away from me," Bellatrix told him, giving him a shove.

He straightened, and sighed. "Very well, Bellatrix Black. If that's the way you want it." He scooped up the necklace and held it out to her. "Here, take it, it's well nigh worthless."

Bellatrix looked at him suspiciously, but took it, dropped it into her pocket, and turned to go.

"One more thing, Bellatrix Black."

She turned back, though she kept her eyes on the ground, not wanting to make eye contact.

"Don't give it to your sister. Wear it, and remember what I said. If you ever change your mind about joining me, I'll always be there."

Bellatrix looked him dead in the eyes, just in time to see a flicker of scarlet in them. She gasped, pulled the door open, and fled.

It was only after she reached the relative safety of the steps to Gringotts that she dared to stop. No one was following her, though a few people glanced at her oddly. She pulled the moonstone out of her pocket and stared at it.

It lay, simple and innocent on her palm. But when she looked at it, she heard Tom Riddle's voice, the soft, silky hiss in her ear.

_I could make a princess of you, Bellatrix Black._

She considered the necklace, then, squinting in a shop window, fastened it around her neck.


	3. Journeyman

After a long, dull day of shopping, pretending to care about what sort of dress robes looked best on her and whether it was appropriate to wear rubies with a white gown, or whether pearls would be better, Andromeda was happy to tell her sisters that she was off for a walk in the gardens and escape into the moors.

She very much doubted whether anyone would miss her – Druella was in a state of exhaustion, because, she said, her daughters were so very difficult. Cygnus had locked himself in his study, and was unlikely to exit any time soon. Narcissa, vain as she was, had been admiring herself when Andromeda last saw her, and she would probably not leave the mirror until she decided it was time to go to bed. Bellatrix had been in a mood since they had been out shopping, and would probably just be happy that Andromeda wasn't bothering her.

Andromeda hiked up to the crest of her hill, and sat down among the heather. Maybe Ted would be out tonight, and they could play some game…

A motion caught Andromeda's eye, and she squinted. There was someone making their way towards her. Her hand clasped around the handle of her wand, ready to draw it at the first sign of danger. The person appeared to be male, and an adult – _not Ted, then_ – and Andromeda's stomach clenched. He was approaching her, barely a hundred yards away now, back to the setting sun, and she knew perfectly well that, in a fight, she would have the disadvantage…

A cloud moved across the sun, blocking out the strongest light, and Andromeda was able to see his face.

"Uncle Alphard!"

She jumped up, fear completely forgotten, and embraced her uncle, who chuckled at her enthusiasm.

"Well, hello to you too," he said. "How's my favourite niece?"

"I thought you wanted to talk to me," Andromeda said, with a mock hurt expression. Uncle Alphard laughed, and sat down on the hillside. Andromeda joined him, her imaginings forgotten.

Uncle Alphard was one of what the Black family considered scars upon their family tree, for his fondness for Muggles and magical creatures, which the Blacks considered below them. Perhaps because Andromeda so rarely got to see him, he was by far her favourite family member. Where the rest of the Black family was uptight, proper, and frankly dull, Uncle Alphard was informal, always with a joke or funny story to relate. He had tales of muggles and their strange inventions, or of merfolk or centaurs, and to listen to those stories, none of them were anything inferior to wizards. Besides that, there was a certain rebellious feeling to talking to him, as Cygnus and Walburga had been so clear that their brother should never be mentioned. Like Andromeda, he enjoyed haunting the moors, and they often met each other in the area just outside Black Manor.

"How have you been, Andromeda?" he asked. "How's the good life?"

"Boring as ever," she told him. Uncle Alphard was the one person who Andromeda could tell what she felt to. Even Bellatrix and Narcissa would have looked at her like she was crazy if she had said that life as a Black was boring, and Ted didn't understand it at all. But Uncle Alphard had been bored as a Black too, and he was always sympathetic to Andromeda's feelings.

"Nothing interesting at all?" he asked. "What about that chap you've mentioned a couple times? Ted Tonks. How's he?"

"He's fine." Even though Andromeda knew that Uncle Alphard wouldn't disapprove of her consorting with Mudbloods, she didn't like to talk about Ted.

"There must be something interesting happening. Come on, tell me exactly what's happened to you today."

Andromeda sighed and rolled her eyes. "Mother took us shopping for new dress robes, Bella snuck off to Borgin and Burkes' and came back all moody, then we went back home for supper, and I said I was going to walk in the gardens and came out here instead. Nothing interesting _ever_ happens, you _know_ that."

Uncle Alphard nodded, and reached into the pocket of his robes. He produced a pipe, tapped some tobacco into it, and lit it, inhaling deeply. Andromeda watched him skilfully blow out a smoke ring.

"Well," Uncle Alphard said, "if isn't a situation that calls for some smoke, I don't know what is." He passed his pipe to Andromeda, who took it carefully, inhaled, held the smoke for a long moment, then blew it out in a stream, trying not to cough.

"Uncle Alphard?" she asked, passing the pipe back to him.

"Yes?"

"What's it like?"

"What's what like?" He put the pipe to his lips again, and blew out several neat little grey clouds.

"What's it like not being a Black anymore?"

"That's an awfully complicated question," Uncle Alphard said. He looked at Andromeda sharply. "Are you thinking of running away?"

"I don't know," she answered. It was the truth. The idea had crossed her mind, more than once, but she had never given it any serious thought. "Do you think I should?"

"I can't answer that for you," he said. "I can't in good conscience tell you that you shouldn't leave. That's a choice you'll have to make for yourself. And I can't tell you that not being a Black makes everything right, either."

"But could you tell me what it's like?"

He leaned back on his elbows, pipe in hand, and stared at the evening sky. Andromeda waited while he considered.

"I couldn't say everything that's different," he said at last. "I've been away from the Blacks much too long to remember how things were. And it hasn't always been easy. In fact, being a Black was much easier, I would say. I've had to do a lot of work that I wouldn't have had to if I had just accepted the Black family way, and a lot of the time it seemed like no matter what I did, I wasn't getting anywhere. I've seen a lot of bad things, Andromeda. The world…" he waved the hand with the pipe in it, leaving a thin trail of smoke behind it. "It's not always a pretty place. Hell, a lot of the time, it's wicked ugly. There are things I've seen that will haunt me forever."

Andromeda swallowed. She had never seen Uncle Alphard this serious, this intense, and even unhappy.

"Out there, you never know what the next day is going to bring," he said. "There's no security. At least you know, Andromeda, that tomorrow, you're going to wake up and the day is going to be just about exactly the same as every day before it. I don't know that. Tomorrow, I could lose my job, and then I won't have any money, and I'll have to find a new one, and everything will change completely."

"Oh," Andromeda said quietly. "I guess it's pretty scary, isn't it?"

"I suppose." Uncle Alphard took another drag on his pipe. "But it's exciting too. I can genuinely say that I've earned everything that I get, and that's satisfying. When you see something, and you think _I've worked hard for that, and now it's paid off_, there's no feeling like that. And it's also good to think that you're not being judged by your family, you're being judged by exactly what you do. If someone likes you, you know it's because you're an interesting person, not because they want an in with the Black family. Besides that…" he gestured at the world at large again. "Even though it's ugly sometimes, the world's a much more interesting place when you can go out and see it properly, instead of just looking at it through windows, like you Blacks do."


	4. Believe in Me

The bedroom that Bellatrix, Narcissa and Andromeda shared was quite frankly not large enough for three girls who all liked time alone. That wasn't to say that the room was small, exactly, but the quarters were close enough to make it difficult to hide emotions.

"What's wrong with you two?" Narcissa demanded.

Andromeda and Bellatrix both looked at her. Bellatrix had been sitting on her bed, knees drawn up to her chest, and her hands clasped at her throat, and Andromeda was at the window seat, staring unseeingly across the grounds of Black Manor.

"What do you mean?" asked Bellatrix.

Narcissa sighed impatiently, and swiveled on the stool she was sitting on to see herself in the mirror. "You're all moody, and Andromeda's been staring out that window as if there's something out there she can't bear to take her eyes off, and it's really dreadfully boring when you two are just sitting around and sighing every few minutes."

"I haven't been sighing," Bellatrix protested.

"Well, Andromeda has!"

"Hmm?" Andromeda dragged her eyes off the grounds, and blinked, rather surprised that Narcissa had noticed her at all.

"You've been sitting there and sighing for hours now," accused Narcissa. "What's so fascinating out there that you can't look away from it?"

"There's nothing interesting out there," Bellatrix said impatiently. "Andromeda's just up in space. Isn't that right, Andi?"

Andromeda shrugged. "I was just thinking…"

"You're always thinking," said Narcissa. "You ought to get your head out of the clouds, Mother says."

Andromeda heaved an overdramatic sigh, taking vague pleasure in the expressions of annoyance on her sisters' faces when she did so. "I don't know. I like the clouds. I like thinking about being somewhere else, sometimes. Don't you ever wish you were somewhere else?"

"No," Bellatrix and Narcissa said at the same time.

Andromeda looked between her sisters, rather helplessly.

"Never?" she asked. "You never feel like getting out? You never feel like there might be something better out there?"

"Merlin, no!" exclaimed Bellatrix. "What could possibly be better than being a Black?"

"I don't know," Andromeda admitted. "But there has to be something better, don't you think?"

"I most certainly do not think so," Bellatrix said firmly. "If you want to, I suppose that's your prerogative. We all need something to believe in after all. But you better not be planning on doing anything stupid."

"What do you mean, stupid?"

"Like running away," Narcissa put in. "You'd better not run away, Andi!"

Andromeda's eyebrows shot up. "Why would you think I'd do that?"

"Largely because you never shut up about how much more interesting life would be out there." Bellatrix jabbed a finger in the direction of the window.

"I wouldn't do that," Andromeda said. She hesitated.

"Even if I did, though," she said slowly, "you'd still love me, wouldn't you?"

"That's a moot point, as you're never going to do it," Bellatrix snapped, but there was a thoughtful frown hovering around Narcissa's face.

"Why would you ask something like that?" she asked softly.

Andromeda chewed on her bottom lip, debating what to say.

"If I thought," she said slowly, "that I could do something, something that would make a difference in the world, if I just got out into it, you wouldn't be angry if I left, would you?"

"Do you think there's anything you can do to make a difference in the world that requires you to leave the Blacks," Bellatrix demanded.

"No, of course not! That was just a hypothetical question… you know, needing to set someone free for them to return and all that…"

"You aren't making any sense, Andi," said Narcissa.

"Or, what if, say, I fell in love with… with someone who our parents didn't approve of?"

"You mean like a Mudblood?" Bellatrix leapt off her bed and advanced on Andromeda. "You haven't been talking to Mudbloods, have you?"

Andromeda swallowed against the tightness in her throat. "Well… for example. Say it was a Mudblood. Would you still love me?"

"Don't be stupid, Andi, everyone knows Mudbloods don't fall in love," Narcissa told her. "Especially not with Purebloods."

"Why can't they fall in love, though?" Andromeda asked. She knew the stories as well as anyone, but she didn't understand them.

"Because they're unnatural," Bellatrix told her, "and God doesn't waste love on unnatural creatures."

"I don't think that's true," Andromeda said softly. "I think anyone can fall in love."

"No they can't. Mudbloods can lust, but they can't love. Especially not Purebloods."

"Isn't true love blind, though?" asked Andromeda. "If true love is blind, how can it tell whether it's between a Pureblood and a Mudblood?"

"Because it just can!" Bellatrix lost all semblance of patience. "Andromeda Black, if I find out you've been talking to Mudbloods, and you've gotten to know one well enough that you think you're falling in love with it, I swear I'll tell Father!"

"Don't you dare tell Father anything, ever!" Andromeda leapt to her feet, spurred into action by her elder sister's threat. "Father doesn't know anything about love! And if you tell him anything I say to you, all it proves, Bella, is that you don't know anything about love either! Or loyalty!"

Bellatrix blanched. Andromeda stared at her, surprised by the reaction she had caused. She didn't fight with her sisters often – more regularly, she was the one moderating fights between them – and she understood that her vehemence had surprised Bellatrix. But Bellatrix seemed more than surprised, she seemed genuinely shaken.

The two girls stared at each other for a long time, while Narcissa looked on in apprehensive silence.

"Sorry," Bellatrix said at last. "I wouldn't tell Father, of course I wouldn't. I just don't want you ruining your life by running off with some Mudblood, Andi."

"I know," said Andromeda, not meeting Bellatrix's eyes.

"We love you, Andi, you do know that, don't you?" Narcissa stood up from her seat at the mirror, and reached out tentatively to touch her sister's arm. "You don't have to throw away your life to prove that you're worthy, we love you just the way you are."

"And we need you," Bellatrix added. "This family wouldn't last two days without you."

"I'm sorry," whispered Andromeda. "I didn't mean to get upset… or to upset you. I would never take a chance like running away."

Narcissa wrapped her arms around Andromeda's neck, and Bellatrix held both her younger sisters tight, clutching them as if she'd never let go.

"Please, never leave, never take a chance like that," she whispered into Andromeda's ear.

"Of course not," Andromeda said. Then, an order more for herself than her sisters, "Believe me."


	5. Sake of the Song

"Andromeda?"

Andromeda jumped. She had been sitting in the gardens, positioned so that Druella could see her from the windows in the parlor. Druella had, in fact, ordered that she did not move from the garden bench directly in front of the parlor window, until Cygnus returned to the house.

"Ted," Andromeda hissed, trying to signal him to hide without being too obvious. She glanced nervously into the window, then waved her hands at Ted, trying to signal him to get away. "You're not supposed to be here!"

"I know," he whispered, ducking into the cover of some shrubbery so that if Druella looked out the window, she wouldn't see him. "But I needed to talk to you."

"And it can't wait a few days? Don't you understand what my parents will do to you if they catch you here?"

"It's sort of an immediate problem, Dromeda," he said.

"Well, what is it? What's so immediate that you can't wait until I get out onto the moors to tell me?"

Ted was chewing on his lips, so hard that he broke the skin.

"I didn't want it to come to this," he said, "but I have to leave."

"Pardon?"

"I'm leaving England," he said.

"_What_?" Andromeda was so shocked she forgot to be quiet.

"Sh…"

"You're leaving _England_?"

"I'm going to Italy," Ted told her. "I've been offered a job working with the Ministry there, and I'm going to take it."

Andromeda felt a lump rising in her throat. "You're only eighteen! Surely you can't get a proper job at the Ministry when you're only eighteen!"

"I'm working with the department of international magical cooperation. As an assistant."

"What about me? You're just going to run off to Italy and leave me here?" Andromeda was going quickly from upset to outright desperate. "You don't know what it's like here without you, Ted! I'll go absolutely mad if you leave!"

"That's what I need to talk to you about." Ted squinted through the foliage at Druella's window to be sure she still hadn't spotted him. "Dromeda, we've been friends for a long time, and I couldn't leave you here. I wouldn't be happy either. Which is why I'm asking you…" he paused, took a deep breath, and then said, "to come with me."

Andromeda stared at him, dumbfounded.

"You want me to come with you?"

"Yes," he said. "Because… because I love you, Andromeda."

Her stomach clenched painfully, and she buried her face in her hands. "Ted, I can't just run off with you to Italy."

"Why not?"

There were a thousand logical answers to that question. _I still have a year left at Hogwarts, I don't know if I love you, my family is more important than that_, and all of them would have been at least a little true, but they weren't the real reason Andromeda didn't want to run away with Ted.

"What if it goes wrong?" she asked, in a very small voice.

"What?"

She considered, trying to work out how best to phrase her fear.

"What if we got to Italy," she said, "and something went wrong. What if we realized we didn't really love each other? Then I'd never be able to come back here."

"That wouldn't happen."

"But what if it did?"

"So is that what you think? You think we shouldn't love, for fear it might fade?"

"That's not what I meant–"

"And what if you stayed here, Dromeda?" he asked. "What does this place," he nodded his head to indicate the grounds and the manor, "have to offer you?"

"Everything," Andromeda told him, wincing at how she sounded like her sisters now. "This is my home, Ted."

"But you don't like it here!" For the first time, Ted's face as betraying distress. "You've said that a hundred thousand times! It doesn't have anything for you! You're always talking about how much you wish you could just get away, and now I'm giving you a chance!"

"It's not that simple–"

"It's exactly that simple! You hate it here! You say it's rigid and conditional, and that with me, you can live, just for the sake of living! Isn't that what you want! Being free and all that?"

"But–"

"Andromeda! Come inside, Father's home!"

Andromeda slammed her mouth shut, and twisted on the bench to see Bellatrix leaning out of the kitchen doorway. Ted was hidden, Andromeda knew, by the foliage, but that didn't stop her heart increasing in speed quite dramatically.

"I'll be there in a minute," she said, hoping that her voice didn't betray how shaken she was.

"Right," said Bellatrix, turning on her heel and heading back inside, apparently not caring in the slightest that Andromeda had, apparently been talking to herself. If Bellatrix had even noticed that.

"I have to go," she whispered, turning back to Ted, crouched in the shrubbery. "I'm sorry…"

"Well," Ted said, "if you change your mind… I'm not leaving for a few more days. Send me your owl, if you decide you want to come with me."

"Mother says to hurry up!" Bellatrix called, sticking her head back out.

"I will," Andromeda assured him in a whisper, then stood up, forced a bland smile onto her face, and followed her sister back inside.

"Sounded like you were talking to yourself," Bellatrix observed, glancing over her sister in the customary act of making sure she was presentable.

"I wasn't talking," lied Andromeda.

"Singing, then?" Bellatrix brushed a little dirt off the front of her blouse.

Andromeda shrugged.

"Well, come on, then," said Bellatrix. "According to Mother, there's something important to discuss."


	6. Song and Dance

Cygnus, Druella and Narcissa were already seated at the table. Druella was a portrait of faux happiness, Cygnus was frowning, and Narcissa merely looked confused.

"Sit," Cygnus ordered, and Bellatrix and Andromeda complied.

He considered his daughters, appraised each of them.

"I prayed for sons," he said, at last. "And thrice, God defied me and sent me daughters. I have done my best to bring the three of you up as proper ladies, as examples of what the Black family can be, in hopes that, when the time came, good Pureblood men would request your hands in marriage. And at last, at last, that wish has been granted, at least in part."

"Father," Bellatrix said, leaning towards him, over the table, "I don't want to–"

"Silence, Bellatrix." Cygnus cast his eldest daughter a disapproving glare. "Master Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, has asked for the hand of one of my three daughters. Prices have been negotiated, your dowries decided, and the decision has been made–"

"Rodolphus Lestrange–" Bellatrix began, but again she was cut off.

"The matter is settled. There will be no argument –"

'But–"

"What is it you are so eager to say, Bellatrix?" Cygnus asked, tipping his head back as though praying for patience.

"Rodolphus Lestrange is a pig," Bellatrix proclaimed. "I don't want to marry him."

"Then, Bellatrix," said Cygnus, an ugly smile forming on his face, "I would say that it is a very good thing he did not request you."

There was a pause, in which Bellatrix's face went from defiant to confused to outraged, then she burst out "_Why not?_"

"Apparently," Cygnus said, his face now the picture of superior revulsion, "it was a matter of your virtue being called into question."

"_What_?"

"Master Lestrange seems to believe you are not, shall we say, as pure a wife as he would like."

Bellatrix flushed, and she seemed at a complete loss for words. Anger was quickly gathering in her face, and she seemed about ready to murder.

"But I'm the eldest!" she protested. "If I don't get married first, people will think there's something wrong with me, and I'll never get married!"

"Perhaps you should have considered that before now," Cygnus said.

"But–"

"Not another word on the subject, Bellatrix. The point is that Rodolphus wishes to marry Andromeda."

Andromeda's jaw dropped.

"But I hardly know him!" she protested. "I don't want to get married, especially if it ruins Bellatrix's chances–"

"This is not a request!" Cygnus's face was slowly going red. "You are not being give the option to marry Rodolphus Lestrange, you are being ordered!"

"This isn't fair!" said Bellatrix, standing up and stamping her foot. "Rodolphus doesn't know anything! I'm perfectly pure!"

"This is a done deal!" Cygnus shouted, standing up to face his eldest daughter eye-to-eye. "You act the whore, and you will be treated as such!"

"I never act like a whore! Talk to him, make him take me!"

"But you said he was a pig," Narcissa pointed out.

"Shut up!"

"There will be no negotiations! If you cannot accept this, you will be locked in your bedroom until such time as you realize that you are not as desired as you believe you are!"

"Fine!" Bellatrix screamed, and fled the room, slamming the door behind her with such force that a painting fell off the wall.

"Father," Andromeda appealed, "Why would Rodolphus Lestrange want to marry me? I don't even know him very well. The last time I saw him was at the dance at the Malfoy's."

"I don't pretend to understand it," Cygnus said bitterly. "I would have been far happier not to see you married – do you realize what this will look like? Do you realize how this will scar her chances of marriage? Do you realize what people will think, that the eldest daughter of the Black family is unmarriageable? Do not complain of your own lot, Andromeda, when the rest of us have it so much worse!"

"But–"

"If you cannot stop complaining, Andromeda Black, then you may follow your sister!" Cygnus jabbed a finger in the direction of the door.

Andromeda's lip trembled. She stood up slowly, and turned for the door, walked towards it with as much dignity as she could muster, stepped outside, shut the door behind her, and crumpled.

She sank to the floor, burying her face in her hands. _I can't marry Rodolphus Lestrange, I just can't!_

One brief fit of tears later, Andromeda stood up, wiped her face, and made for the bedroom.

Bellatrix was waiting for her.

Barely had Andromeda stepped inside, when she was met with a blow across the face that was enough to send her sprawling on the floor.

"You little _bitch!_" Bellatrix shrieked, glaring at her sister with utter hatred in her eyes. "You've ruined everything!"

Even though she had cried herself all but dry just minutes before, tears prickled at Andromeda's eyes at the pain and Bellatrix's anger. "Bella, I'm sorry, I don't want to–"

"Like Hell you don't! I saw the way you looked at him at the Malfoy's party, I saw the way you danced with him! What else did you do for him to convince him to take you instead of me?"

"Nothing! I don't want to marry him, Bella,, I'd far rather you–"

"Don't lie!" Bellatrix grabbed her wand and aimed it between Andromeda's eyes. "I'll never get married if you get married first, people will think there's something wrong with me!"

"It's not my fault, Bella!"

"Maybe if you hadn't acted such a little flirt around him–"

"I never!"

"I told you not to lie!" Bellatrix's eyes had gone from displaying hatred to outright madness. "You go downstairs and tell Father that you won't marry him!"

"I tried!" Andromeda protested. "He won't listen to me!"

"Then get out!" screamed Bellatrix. "Get out of my sight, you traitorous little bitch! I never want to see you again!"

Andromeda scampered across the floor and out the door, dragging herself to her feet, and ran down the stairs, fleeing her sister's wrath. She flung herself out the doors, and fairly flew across the gardens, clambered over the wall, and dropped onto the ground on the other side. Then she was up and running flat out towards the heather, where _– oh, thank you, God_ – Ted was sitting, reading a book.

"Teddy," she sobbed, grabbing his arm. "I'm sorry, I was wrong before, I need to go with you. I need to get out of here, and if I don't get out now, I never will! Please, let me come with you. I love you!"


	7. Celluloid Heroes

"Dromeda," Ted said, "Are you sure about this? Are you really sure you want to leave your family?"

"Yes," Andromeda told him.

"Why?"

"I thought you wanted me to come with you!"

"I do, Dromeda, of course I do. But you were so vehement about not wanting to come with me. What changed your mind?"

"I can't stay here," Andromeda said tearfully. "They want me to get married, and I can't do that! And B– Bellatrix– told me to get out, and she never wanted to see me again and– and– and I love you and I don't want to give you up because of my family!"

"But," he said doubtfully, "you weren't sure about it earlier today… how do I know you're not just coming with me to avoid a marriage?"

"Ted!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he amended quickly. "It's just that you're so… you're always looking for some sort of Utopia, and I don't want you thinking you're going to find it if you come with me."

"I don't understand you at all." Andromeda wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Before, you wanted me to come with you, and I wasn't sure. Now I've made up my mind and you've decided you _don't_ want me, is that it?"

"No!"

"And you accuse me of searching for a Utopia?" Andromeda knew she wasn't really angry at Ted, but she needed to lash out at _someone_. "What, do you think I'm deluded, is that it?"

"Not deluded!" Ted looked horrified. "That's not what I meant – I just meant that you're… well, a dreamer–"

"As if you're not!"

Ted didn't say anything, just stared at Andromeda, as she was consumed by a fresh wave of furious tears. He waited patiently until they subsided, leaving Andromeda looking weak and fragile.

"I'm sorry," she sniffled at last. "I was just so angry at… at everyone, and I took it out on you…"

"I understand," Ted told her. "And I'm sorry. Please don't get angry, Andromeda, I'm only asking because I don't want you to make a mistake. But are you sure you want to do this? There's no going back if you run away with me. After all, I'm just a Mudblood–"

"Don't call yourself that," Andromeda said. "You're flesh and blood, just like me. And tt doesn't matter what you are, what matters is that I'd far rather waste my life with you than waste it here. My family's trying to turn me into a princess, and you know I never want to play the princess." She smiled weakly – it was a long-standing joke between her and Ted that in their fantasy world of imaginary villains and heroes, the one in which they had played since they first met, Andromeda refused to be cast in her namesake role as the princess.

"You'd be willing to turn your back on your family, just because you want to be alone?"

"Not alone. I want to be with you."

"What about what you said earlier? What if it doesn't work out? That means you'll have suffered in vain, and you'll never be able to get your life back…"

"Ted," Andromeda said, "I don't want to get this…" she indicated the Manor, "life back. I want my life to be with you. Isn't that clear enough for you? I'm not going to worry"

Ted chewed on his lips, then nodded slowly.

"If you're sure," he said. "You know I'd stand close by you no matter what you chose…"

"I know," Andromeda told him. "And I'm choosing you. If I stay here, I'm destined to a long, lonely, boring life, and I don't want that. And my sisters don't want me anyhow, so what's the point?"

"I'm sure that they wouldn't really want you to leave…"

"Bellatrix said she never wanted to see me again."

"From what you've told me, Bellatrix has said plenty of things like that before."

"She meant it this time." Andromeda shuddered at the memory. "She would have killed me if I hadn't gotten out. She hates me."

"No she doesn't."

"You don't even know her," Andromeda reminded him. "How would you know if she hates me or not?" She sighed. "I wish this was a story. If it was a story instead of real life, I would at least be able to hate her…" Tears were starting to fill up her eyes again. "And then I could just be a fantasy hero, and fantasy heroes never feel any pain…"

There was a pause, in which Andromeda bit back her tears. At last she said, "When can we leave?"

"As soon as we want to," Ted said immediately. "If you're really, really sure…"

"I'm sure," Andromeda told him.

Ted looked at her for a moment, and then a smile broke across his face, and he flung his arms around her neck.

"Then I'm happy," he told her. "And I promise, this is going to be a success."

"I hope so," said Andromeda, but even though she knew she wanted to leave with Ted, and never to go back to the Blacks, there was still that tiny part of her mind, the part that spoke with Bellatrix's voice, that whispered to her, _"It may be a success… but success walks hand-in-hand with failure_."


	8. Keeper of the Flame

"Bella?"

Bellatrix was lying on her back, eyes shut, and when she heard Narcissa's voice, she cracked one eyelid, and peered at her. "What is it?"

Narcissa shifted from foot to foot, twisting her hands together nervously.

"The sun went down hours ago," she said, in a tiny, nervous voice, "and Andi isn't back yet."

"Good." Bellatrix shut her eyes again, and rested her arm over them. "Let her stay out all night. Maybe when she comes back, she'll have rethought her plan to ruin my marriage prospects."

"I'm worried, though, Bella," Narcissa whispered. "I saw her going out, and she looked so upset…"

"She'd bloody better be upset. She's ruined everything."

"But what if she went out and got lost? What if she… I mean, she was talking about running away, and what if…"

"Oh, god." Bellatrix sat up, rubbed her forehead. "Can't you talk to Father instead? He'll be much more concerned than I am."

"He'd be furious if he thought she had said anything about running away. You know that."

"Oh, all right, all right." She stood, and stamped towards the door, shoving Narcissa roughly out of the way. "I'll go out and find her. She's probably moping out on the moors. No surprises there."

She stormed down the stairs, and out the door. Andromeda thought that no one knew of her constant trips out onto the moors. She was wrong, of course: Bellatrix and Narcissa were both fully aware of her penchant for the freedom of the highlands. But they didn't talk to her about it, because they understood – or, Bellatrix understood and Narcissa pretended she did – that Andromeda, who didn't take well to crowds, needed time away, alone. Bellatrix had never gone after her before, for the same reasons of personal space that the girls did not go through each other's possessions.

Bellatrix clambered over the garden wall in the same way she had seen Andromeda do when she thought no one was watching, and landed rather clumsily on the other side. She stood, cursing her lack of grace, and peered around.

"Andi!"

She didn't really expect an answer, but it was eerie nonetheless to hear her voice hanging in the night air, with no response at all.

"Blast," she muttered, and started out across the moor.

Night had fallen, and wind blew cold across the moors. A storm was filling the air, and Bellatrix shivered violently at the chill.

"Andi!" she called, gripping the handle of her wand, ready to whip it out at a moment's notice. "Andi, it's me, Bella! Where are you?"

She had hoped that Andromeda had stayed close, but Bellatrix had now walked so far that she could scarcely see the lights of Black Manor through the mists. Rain started to fall, and it bit at her exposed skin. _I should have brought a cloak._

"Andi, come here!" She didn't know why, but she raised her voice to a scream, as though that would _force_ Andromeda to hear her, no matter how far away she might be.

As though in answer, there was a crack of lightning. Bellatrix cursed. There was a rocky swell not far away, if she could just get to the top of it, she could see further, she might see Andromeda. She quickened her pace, stumbling over the rocky ground towards it.

"Andromeda Black, you come here right this minute!"

Thunder crashed, and, though she had known the sound was coming, it startled Bellatrix enough for her to miss seeing a crevice in the ground. Her foot caught in it, and she was sent sprawling onto the ground. "Dammit!"

Her ankle had twisted rather painfully, and the sloping ground was slippery with rainwater, making it hard to climb back to her feet. Hot tears of anger were in Bellatrix's eyes, and she swore vehemently as she clambered up the slope, towards the summit from which she would be able to – she hoped – find her sister.

The wind howled, and Bellatrix was overcome by an intense sensation of visceral fear. She wouldn't have been the slightest bit surprised if the Devil himself appeared out of the mists.

"Andromeda!"

Another flash of lightning, and Bellatrix shrieked, for it illuminated a human figure, not five feet before her. She lost her footing and skidded, tumbling to the muddy ground again. Immediately, she raised her head, shaking her wet hair out of her eyes, but blinded by rain, and without light, she could not see anyone. Another boom of thunder.

"Who's there?" she called over the wind, which whistled in her ears, sounding suspiciously like it was hissing _Beware… beware…_

"Andromeda, is that you?"

She twisted on the ground, and screamed, when she turned and found herself staring into a man's face. Her hand was on her wand in an instant, but it flew from her grasp and clattered to the ground.

Two hands knotted in her hair, holding her head still, staring into the man's eyes. Lightning threw his features into sharp relief.

"Don't scream, Bellatrix Black," Tom Riddle hissed. Bellatrix couldn't have if she tried. In fact, she was quite sure her heart had stopped for sheer terror.

"Listen to me closely," he said, his voice as chilling as the storm air. "Your sister is gone. You will never see her again."

Bellatrix struggled against his grip. He was hard to see in the dark. All she could make out were his eyes, which flamed in the black of the stormy night.

"Let go of me!"

"I know where your sister is, Bellatrix Black."

She tried to throw him off her, but he was strong, and she was very nearly delirious. The fear and shock of seeing him, a man she barely knew, so close to her and professing to know of her sister might never fully leave her. "How did you find me out here?"

His eyes, those burning eyes, glowing almost crimson in the dark – though surely that was a trick of Bellatrix's terror-stricken mind – travelled down to where the moonstone pendant lay, against the soaked fabric of her dress, which clung to Bellatrix's breast.

"You wished her gone," he said, though his voice didn't seem to come so much from him as from the winds around her.

"Do you know where my sister is?" Bellatrix hated that her voice shook when she spoke.

"I know everything, Bellatrix Black."

"Where is she?" Bellatrix clawed at him, but her hand passed through him as though he was mist, though the hands knotted in her hair were obviously solid.

He chuckled, and the sound sent chills right to Bellatrix's core – or was that just the cold?

"You ought to be careful what you wish for, Bellatrix Black." His calm, cool voice was far more sinister here in the raging storm, when Bellatrix was alone and helpless, than it had been when she had last seen him, in Borgin and Burkes. "You wished her away."

"Tell me where my sister is!" She struck out at him again, with no more effect than the first time.

"You couldn't have kept her much longer, she's too wild. The wild cannot be tamed, no matter what you try."

"You're mental!"

He laughed, though there was no mirth in the sound.

"I'm not mental, Bellatrix Black.

"You know where my sister is! Tell me now!"

"Reconsider my offer, and perhaps I shall."

Tom Riddle – if indeed, he was Tom Riddle – leaned close, far too close, and Bellatrix lashed out, though, as expected, her hand merely passed through him.

"I'm not here to help you get your sister back," he breathed. "I'm here for you, Bellatrix Black, because now that your sister's gone, you'll want me. You'll want to accept."

"What _are_ you?" Bellatrix was hysterical now, and tearful. "Are you the Devil?"

"The Devil? Oh, no, not the Devil." One of his hands – his corporeal hands, though when she tried to hit them away, her own fingers passed through them – untwisted from her hair, and traced along the edge of her jaw. "I'm far more than the Devil. I am an illusion, Bellatrix Black, but I will haunt you forever more."

Bellatrix gathered all the air she could into her lungs and screamed, hoping to God that someone would hear her.

"No need to come to your decision tonight," Tom Riddle smirked, and his hands left her face. He moved backwards, the sheets of rain obscuring him. "But you will be mine eventually, Bellatrix Black, that we both know. I have bewitched you, I am your fantasy…"

He faded into the mists he had appeared from, leaving Bellatrix altogether mad with sheer terror. Her limbs were shaking uncontrollably, and she couldn't have stood if she tried.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the moors, and there was no sign she could see of Tom Riddle.

Her heart was hammering at a speed that could not be healthy, and she couldn't breathe for the fright. Bellatrix wasn't sure how long it was after Tom Riddle disappeared that her body ceased to maintain consciousness.

When she awoke, she was lying not fifty yards the Manor, in a soft patch of heather that she was quite sure she had not fallen asleep in. The storm had passed, a faint line of light was appearing on the eastern horizon, and there was round, red burn mark where the moonstone had been lying against her skin.


	9. Night at Eggersberg

In a small inn, in Eggersberg, Germany, where he was staying for the time being on a trip to Italy, Uncle Alphard was awoken by a tapping at his window.

He rolled over onto his side, pulling a thin pillow over his head to drown out the noise, but it continued, rhythmic, and with no apparent intention of ending. He lay still for several long minutes, waiting for it to go away, becoming steadily more irritated, and more awake, until he could stand it no longer.

The tapping was caused by an owl, a small speckled one, with a letter attached to its leg.

"You've got the wrong person," Alphard told the owl, opening the window and glaring at the little creature. "No one's going to be sending me a letter."

The owl hooted, and stuck out its leg. Alphard rolled his eyes, exasperated, and pulled the letter off. "Let's see who this is for, then."

It was just a folded piece of parchment, with "Alphard" printed rather messily on the front. Alphard raised his eyebrows, and unfolded it, wondering who on earth would be sending him a letter. He hadn't received a letter in years, and certainly not while he was on one of his trips.

_Dear Uncle Alphard_, the letter read,

_I've made up my mind. I left the Blacks. I'm going to Italy, with Ted Tonks, even though he's a Mudblood. I understand what a serious choice this is, and I'm sure I've done the right thing. Mother and Father were going to marry me off, to Rodolphus Lestrange, and I couldn't do that. It would have ruined Bella's prospects for marriage, and I would have hated it._

_Please don't try to convince me to go home, there's no life for me there. I love Ted, and I know I'll be far happier with him than with the Blacks. I love you, Uncle, and I hope that we will be able to continue to be friends._

_Love from,_

_Your favourite niece,_

_Andromeda (No Longer Black)_

Alphard read the letter over several times, a slight sick sensation in his stomach. Andromeda had thrown her life away, just as he had, and she was never going to be able to go back. Did she understand just how permanent a choice this was? If Alphard had known, when he had made the choice to leave behind the cultured propriety of the Black family, what the outside world would be like, would he have still gone? He had tried to explain to Andromeda that the outside world wasn't always pretty; why had she insisted on leaving in spite of that? Despite Andromeda's request that he didn't try to convince her to go home, Alphard reached for a quill and parchment, all ready to write back to her, insisting that she go home.

He stopped himself, before he could scrawl out the note. He had told her, when they had spoken, that whether she left or not was a choice he could not make for her. She had made her choice, and though he thought it might be the wrong one, he couldn't take back his earlier words. Besides, if she had gone already, and if she had been gone long enough to send him an owl, the time for going back home had already passed by a good deal.

Alphard thought carefully, then set pen to paper, and wrote,

_Dear Andromeda,_

_On receiving your letter, my initial instinct was to write back, insisting you do not leave home. But I understand now that it is your choice, and I cannot force you to go to the Blacks, especially in the face of an arranged marriage. If you feel that you will be happier with this Ted Tonks, then it is your right to leave England with him. I too am on my way to Italy – perhaps we shall meet there._

_You have, and always will have, my support in whatever you choose to do. I sought happiness outside the house of Black, and I can only hope you find it, as I did._

_I remain,_

_Your uncle,_

_Alphard (Neither Black)_

He read over the letter, then bound it to the owl's leg.

"Take this back to Andromeda, please," he said, stroking the feathers, and hoping that the owl would understand him.

It hooted quietly, and took off, soaring away into the Eggersberg night.

"Godspeed, little owl," Alphard murmured, watching it fly away. "And Godspeed, Andromeda."


	10. Strawberry Girl

Andromeda had never felt so happy. She was free at last, free from the Black family. This feeling was far beyond what she had experienced all those times she had thought she had been escaping onto the moors. That had been a temporary respite at best, and even when she had felt so free out on the highlands, the Blacks and their severity had hung over her, stopped her from really enjoying freedom. Even when she thought she had left everything behind, they came with her. But now, she really had left them, and she was ready to begin a new life.

Of course, Andromeda had to be sure not to think too much about her sisters. That still stung. Did it hurt them very much, she wondered, to know that she would never come back? Did they still think there was a chance she would?

It might hurt Narcissa, and for that Andromeda was truly sorry. But the thought of Bellatrix, and how she had told her never to come back… well, Andromeda felt no sorrow for her older sister.

She did not dwell on such sad thoughts. Ted would be leaving for Italy in less than twenty-four hours, and she, Andromeda, would be going with him.

"Andromeda Tonks," she said aloud, and liked how it sounded. Better than Andromeda Black. Not as pretentious.

She was passing her time, sitting on the side of a path that led up through the moors, and was stunned at how different they looked from this perspective. Always before, even when she had been out on them, the highlands had seemed far away, somehow, separate from her and untouchable in a way that defied logical explanation. But now, Andromeda felt for the first time as though she was part of them, as though she belonged out there.

"Buy a basket of strawberries, miss?"

Andromeda jumped, surprised by the sound of a human voice. She turned in the direction of the sound, and saw a man, holding out a wicker basket bringing with fat, red strawberries.

"Oh!"

She was immediately enamored of the fruit, and also of the man, who had such an open, honest face, and childlike hope in his eyes that she liked him instantly. He was slightly stooped, and looked to be in his forties or fifties, clearly no stranger to hardship, but there was so much hopeful happiness hanging over him that, in a way, he looked no older than twenty.

Andromeda fished in the pocket of her dress for some of the muggle money Ted had given her. She extracted a fistful of notes, and examined them, trying to work out how much they were worth.

"Oh, here you are," she said at last, handing over the whole bundle. "Take it all, I don't need it."

The man seemed utterly shocked. "Oh, no, miss, that's far, far too much." He tried to hand it back, but Andromeda shook her head, and reached for the strawberries. "Keep it," she told him. "I think I owe it to you."

She meant that she owed the whole world that money, and more, for what it had done to free her.

He seemed to want to protest, but just handed her the strawberries, and left, an expression of bemusement on his face.

Andromeda leaned back on her elbows, and popped a berry into her mouth, a feeling of grand contentment spreading over her. The sky was blue, the air was as sweet as perfume, and here among the wild things of the moors – of which she was now one, in a way – the whole world seemed to drip with promise.

Life was so sweet.

)O(

The strawberry seller had a story to tell his family that night. He, and his wife, and their eight children gathered round the meager table, which was laden with more food than they had ever had in their humble home before, and he set about explaining where he had gotten the money.

"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes," he said. "There was a girl sitting out on the side of the road, and I asked her if she would care to buy some strawberries, and she gave me all the money she had, just for one basket!"

"It sounds as if you met an angel, out there on the moors," his wife told him.

"Yes." He considered, thinking of the girl's face. "A lonely angel, I think."


	11. All in the Fun of the Fayre

"So this is Italy…" Andromeda said, looking around curiously.

"Haven't you ever been to Italy before? Don't the Blacks have a villa here or some such?" Ted asked.

"Well, yes, so I've seen plenty of the villa, and of the ocean, but I've never seen Rome before."

Ted smiled proudly. "I'm honoured to be the first to show it to you then."

The couple was standing towards the edge of a narrow, cobbled street, watching the goings-on of the fair which they had had the good fortune to arrive in Rome at the same time as. There were about a thousand stands, selling anything one could expect to see sold, and more. Andromeda dearly desired some of the fine, brilliantly coloured silk scarves, but she didn't want to ask Ted for any more muggle money. Besides, the scarf her eyes kept being drawn to was a particular green-and-silver one that looked far too much like Bellatrix's favourite summer wrap…

But there weren't just the stands selling things. There was a troupe of women dancing, graceful and hypnotizing, all along the side of the street, the bright paint on their faces not quite making up for a certain deadened quality in their eyes. A helter-skelter parade of sorts was making its way through the streets – decorated knights on even more decorated steeds, kings and queens in their finery, and children who had just decided that they wanted to run alongside the horses. Andromeda smiled.

"What exactly is the occasion?" she asked Ted, watching a man and a woman who she supposed were supposed to be the Queen of Diamonds and the King of Spades passing by.

"I don't really know," Ted said, "but isn't it lovely?"

"Yes."

Andromeda sighed dreamily. She had a sudden, mad wish to run up alongside the parade, with all the children.

"What's this? Surely such a fine young couple deserve more than a place on the side of the road!"

Andromeda looked up at the knight, mounted on a powerful grey stallion, that had stepped away from the parade to address her. "Pardon me, sir?"

The knight lifted his visor, and Andromeda laughed in sheer delight.

"Uncle Alphard!"

He swung off the horse, and embraced his niece – admittedly not as pleasant an experience as one might wish, as he was wearing armour, but kind all the same.

"What are you doing here?" Andromeda squealed. "And in the parade too …"

"It's all good fun, isn't it?" Uncle Alphard said. "And you must be Ted Tonks." He turned to Ted and shook his hand. "You must be a good man, for Andromeda to want to come all the way to Italy for you."

Ted smiled rather nervously, apparently a bit intimidated by the knight who had stepped out of formation to compliment him. "I do my best, Sir."

"Oh, none of this 'Sir' nonsense," said Uncle Alphard. "Do call me Alphard. Uncle Alphard, if you prefer. But not 'Sir' - that makes me sound like some sort of dreadful bore."

Ted smiled. "Uncle Alphard, then. I'm very pleased to meet you."

"Likewise," said Alphard. "Welcome to Italy. A friend of mine told me you were here at the fair, and I couldn't resist dropping by to say hello. Wouldn't be right of me to let my favourite niece and her beau wander around Rome all alone, now would it?"

"Where did you get the armour?" Andromeda asked, staring in equal parts amusement and fond exasperation at her uncle's elaborate costume.

He winked. "It's all part of the fantasy. Don't you think it's rather fine?"

"Of course I do."

"Good." Uncle Alphard hooked his foot back into the stirrup, and lifted himself onto the horse. "Climb up, then. This horse is big enough for three."

Ted looked at Andromeda for some clue as to how to react. She grinned at him, and heaved herself up onto the horse after her uncle, and they together pulled Ted up behind her.

The sun was setting, and Andromeda rode through the streets of Rome, laughing at her Uncle's stories, watching the moon rise and the sky darken until the city was reduced to romantic moonlight and shadows. And when her Uncle finally deposited them at the hostel at which they were staying, any doubts that Andromeda had had about the utter _rightness_ of her choice to leave the Blacks had been utterly and completely erased in the fun of the fair.


	12. Darkness

Bellatrix could not sleep. She was lying in her bed, in a room empty of her middle sister, and she could not stand it. Narcissa's breathing from her bed across the room did nothing to sooth her.

It had been nearly three weeks, and Andromeda had not returned, nor had there been any sign of her, and Bellatrix was starting to believe that Tom Riddle – or whatever she had encountered out on the moors – was right. Andromeda was not coming back.

She longed to get out of Black Manor, which had, ever since Andromeda left, gone from stern to downright grim. Bellatrix had the distinct feeling that her parents blamed her for Andromeda's disappearance, and she wasn't entirely sure they shouldn't. Bellatrix had, after all, told Andromeda she never wanted to see her again.

Bellatrix pushed back the blankets and climbed out of bed. There was no point in staying in bed, she was too far from sleep. Perhaps, a short walk beneath the stars would ease her mind.

She crept from the bedroom, careful not to make a sound so as not to wake Narcissa, and down the stairs, out into the gardens. The night was cool, and there was a heavy fog hanging in the air, but at least no storm tonight.

Bellatrix fully intended to stay in the gardens. She had no desire to go out onto the moors ever again, considering what had happened to her last time. But as she walked along the garden paths, she couldn't shake the feeling that, hidden in the shadows, were eyes, watching her. More than once she could have sworn she saw movement, but upon closer inspection, there was never anyone present, not even an animal. And even out in the gardens, the pall of Black Manor still hung over her.

What could be out on the moors that was any more frightening than the Manor?

She found the place where it was easy to climb the wall, and lifted herself over, dropping on the other side, out on the moors. An owl hooted, an otherworldly call. Bellatrix shivered a little, and started off across the highlands, not really caring in which direction she went. It was a long time before she turned back to look for the Manor, and by then, it had disappeared completely into the mist.

Bellatrix tried to summon fear, but felt only satisfaction. If Black Manor was invisible to her, she was invisible to it, cloaked in the mists, and that meant freedom. She continued walking.

A vague figure was emerging from the fog, and once more, Bellatrix could not bring herself to be afraid. The person – yes, it was definitely a person – was moving towards her, she had left her wand back in her bedroom, and yet she felt not the faintest inkling of fear.

"Bellatrix Black," he said, coming close enough to her that she could see the face of Tom Riddle, "have you reconsidered my offer?"

His offer?

His offer to make a princess of her? Or his offer to tell her where Andromeda was if she joined him?

Bellatrix felt no fear at all, despite being alone, on the moors, lost and wandless, with the man who had frightened her so the last two times she'd seen him. In fact, there was a feeling rising in the pit of her stomach uncannily like excitement… and something else.

What would happen if she said yes? What did this Tom Riddle want her for in any case? She was curious, and it wasn't as if she had much to lose.

Tom Riddle seemed to sense her willingness, and he smiled, raising his hands to touch her face. "I knew you would choose me, my Bellatrix."

"I am not _your_ Bellatrix," she said, but her voice sounded weak. Tom Riddle was holding her face still so that he was looking her straight in the eye, and try as she might, she could not look away. "I am no one's Bellatrix but my own -"

"Oh, but you are my Bellatrix." He moved his hands down to her neck, stroking the chain of the moonstone necklace, and gently caressing her throat, shoulders, breasts…

Bellatrix knocked his hand away. "No."

"Don't be afraid, Bellatrix Black," he breathed.

"Is this a dream?" Bellatrix whispered. "Am I awake, or am I dreaming?"

He held eye contact, and smiled. "You're so upset that your sister is gone, aren't you, my Bellatrix? I can stop you feeling that. I can cut the strings that bind you to mankind."

For the first time, Bellatrix saw something besides cool calmness in his eyes. There was a glint of madness there too.

Something in the darkness in his eyes pulled her deeper, and something in the madness eased her mind. She wanted desperately to accept his offer, but…

"What exactly is it you want from me?"

"Your undying devotion," he said, voice low and intense. "Your faith, and your assistance to my cause."

"You can make me stop missing Andromeda?"

The memory of Andromeda stung Bellatrix. She would have given anything to stop missing her, and the offer Tom Riddle was making seemed more attractive by the minute.

"I can, Bellatrix Black. For as long as you are faithful to me, I swear to you, you will not miss your sister."

"Then I am yours," she said, hardly believing her answer. Then, echoing his words, "Cut the strings that bind me to mankind."


	13. Dance of the Darkness

The rabbit wasn't hard to catch.

Even without her own wand, using the one Tom Riddle provided her with, Bellatrix was able to catch the creature with ease. She froze it before her, and looked down on the tiny animal. The only sign it was alive was the fear in its eyes as it gazed up at her.

"Very good, Bellatrix Black," Tom Riddle breathed. "Such a helpless, innocent creature… and there is nothing quite so beautiful as the corruption of the innocent… the destruction of the helpless…"

Bellatrix made a soft noise of agreement in her throat. She liked the sight of the little rabbit, immobile, at her feet.

"Now, kill it, Bellatrix Black," he purred. "End its happy little life, a life in which it never did anything wrong to any living creature…"

"_Avada kedavra_," whispered Bellatrix. She had heard the spell before, thought it to herself, but she had never cast it before, and it gave her an incredible rush of pleasure. As green light issued from her wand tip, her whole body hummed. She wanted to kill, she wanted to hurt this tiny little creature, and far more than that as well…

It went limp, crumpled to the ground. Bellatrix looked to Tom Riddle for approval, and he smiled.

"Murder is beautiful, isn't it, Bellatrix Black?" he asked. "They say that killing rips the soul apart, but I think it puts it back together…" He paused, apparently considering her.

"Can I do it again?" she asked, breathless and half-delirious. "Can I kill something else?"

"You most certainly can, Bellatrix Black." Tom Riddle smiled darkly. "There are so many who deserve to die. Would you like to kill a human being this time? You know how good it feels to take an animal's life, can you _imagine_ what it would be like to take a human's?"

Bellatrix squirmed. Yes, she wanted to kill a human, a person with friends and family, wanted to kill so that she could watch the ripples of her own power spread out into the world. A woman powerful enough to kill, and for her own pleasure as well, would not care for her sister. If Bellatrix could kill, could commit a crime that would spread its misery to dozens and dozens of other people, she would be powerful, she would be strong…

"There's a woman not a hundred yards east," Tom Riddle whispered. "Muggle filth, lost on the moors. She has two sons. Kill her, Bellatrix Black…"

Bellatrix gripped the wand handle, turned to the east. Indeed, there was a blurry figure, just visible through the fog. Yes, Bellatrix could kill her, end the life of a Muggle, a mother…

"_Avada kedavra!_" she said loudly, directing the jet of light at the woman, who crumpled instantly. Tom Riddle's breath caught, and Bellatrix felt yet another wave of intense pleasure wash over her. Why had no one told her before how good killing felt?

"Why don't you prove that the Muggle's dead, Bellatrix Black?" purred Tom Riddle. "You've killed her, why don't you drink her blood to prove she's dead…"

The idea should have repulsed Bellatrix, but her sense of pleasure only increased. Yes, she would drink the woman dry, truly prove she could kill…

She stumbled over to the rocky ground, to the dead woman's side, and dropped to her knees on the grass, used the wand to slit her throat. Blood pooled along the shallow cut, and she wrenched the Muggle's head backwards, relishing the sound of the neck snapping, and tearing the slit open further. Tom Riddle moaned quietly to indicate his own pleasure at the proceedings, and Bellatrix fixed her lips to the woman's neck, sucking down the blood, still warm. It tasted wretched, salty and base, but she loved the feeling of it in her mouth, and the taste was appealing in its own strange way too…

Tom Riddle joined her at the woman's side, fastening his own mouth to the cut beside Bellatrix's. It struck her what a sight they must be, a man and a woman, crouching over a dead body, drinking her blood like vampires.

When she could not drink any more, Bellatrix fell backwards, lay sprawling on the grass, consumed by the pleasure – physical and mental – that she had been given by drinking the blood. Tom Riddle gave one final suck to the cut, then joined Bellatrix on the grass, body pressing against hers, smearing bloody kisses on her mouth, trailing down her throat to kiss her breasts. Bellatrix was wild with the delirium drinking the blood had induced, and she did not resist. It did not matter to her how much older he was than her, that she was, despite what her family thought, a virgin, or that Tom Riddle had tempted her into murder. She wanted him.

He took her there, in the mists, out on the highlands with their kill lying close at hand. Bellatrix felt nothing but ecstasy at the intricate dance of their bodies and souls in the dark, melting into each other. She moaned and shrieked her pleasure, not caring if she was heard. She had killed, she was a murderer, all else was irrelevant. Nothing she did could make her any more sinful, so why should she try to be pure?

Upon completion, they lay in the darkness, panting. Bellatrix was exhausted, and for the first time since Andromeda left, she felt as though she could sleep. Tom Riddle took the wand from the grass, and pointed it lazily at the sky.

"_Morsmordre_," he said, and a brilliant emerald mark shot from his wand, to grace the sky. Bellatrix had seen the mark a few times, but never gotten a chance to really look at it. She lay on her back, watching the configuration of brilliant green stars that formed the Dark Mark glisten overhead, until at last she drifted to sleep.

She awoke at home, in bed, feeling better than she had for weeks. And inscribed on her forearm was the mark she had seen in the sky last night.

She had given herself to the Dark Lord without even realizing it.

She had no regrets.


	14. A Health to the Company

Narcissa awoke to the sound of quiet singing.

She opened her eyes, blinked the blurriness away, and saw Bellatrix, sitting at the window, clutching a bottle and rocking slowly back and forth, singing a waltz to herself.

"Bella, what are you doing?"

Bellatrix giggled, though her eyes were bright with tears in the moonlight. "Fancy a drink, Cissy?"

"You're not supposed to drink," Narcissa admonished. She climbed out of bed, and tried to pry the bottle from her sister's grasp. "You know how angry Father would be if he found out-"

"Think I care what Father does?" Bellatrix's voice was thick with alcohol, and she tugged the bottle back, taking a deep swig from it.

"None of us are supposed to be drinking," Narcissa reminded her, lowering her voice to a strained whisper. "We're supposed to be in mourning for Andromeda, remember? That's what we agreed."

"We should be merry," Bellatrix argued.

"We might never see her again!"

"All the more reason to keep our spirits up." Bellatrix took another drink. "Fortune's not always our friend, and when everything's wrong, I'd prefer to be drunk." She tipped her head back and laughed.

Narcissa took the bottle back, and held it well out of her sister's reach. She was going to bring it back downstairs, but something in Bellatrix's face made her falter.

For the first time in days, Narcissa took a good look at her sister. The last time she had looked her right in the eye had been only a day after Andromeda left, and Bellatrix had looked a mess. Now, however, her eyes were shining not just with tears, but with genuine merriment, happy enough to border on slightly mad-looking.

Narcissa sighed, and shook her head, raising the bottle. "A health then." She took a sip and passed it to Bellatrix, who grinned.

"To our bonny little blood-traitor," she said, and downed the rest of the contents.

)O(

Uncle Alphard's boat, which he was taking back to Germany, was at harbour, ready to dock. Andromeda and Ted were seeing him off, and he embraced both of them.

"I wish you safe passage," Ted said, rather gravely. He was rather stiff as Uncle Alphard enfolded him in a hug.

"Thank you, good Ted," Alphard said,

"We'll always remember your kindness," Andromeda put in.

"Nonsense, you're family. My favourite niece, in fact."

Andromeda felt a lump in her throat. She hadn't cried at leaving the Blacks, but somehow seeing Uncle Alphard all ready to board his boat made her feel unpleasantly melancholy.

He embraced her again, and stroked her hair.

"Don't get too emotional about these goodbyes," he said, "You will always be with me, and I'll always be with you, Andromeda, wherever you go."

She nodded, and Alphard drew back, pulling a small pouch from his pocket.

"Heard Andromeda spent all your money on strawberries," he said, addressing Ted with a wink. "Here, take this and go buy yourselves drinks. Celebrate something."

The boat's whistle blew, and Uncle Alphard turned away, climbed onto the boat before it pulled out into the crystal blue water.

The couple took Uncle Alphard's advice that night, and Ted bought a single large glass of some sort of drink – reminding Andromeda that it would be better to buy one and save some of the money.

They sat on a rooftop plaza, and looked out over Rome in silence for some time. At last, Ted raised the glass.

"A health," he said, handing it to Andromeda.

She took a sip as well. "To the company."


	15. Barbara Allen

Months later, when Andromeda and Ted returned to England, Andromeda slipped away, and into the gardens of Black Manor. She didn't know what she hoped to see, except perhaps Bellatrix, so they might reconcile – she didn't want her parting to be on such bad terms.

Bellatrix was there all right. She was sitting on a garden bench, toying with a red rose. Andromeda drew close, and saw her fingers were stippled with pricks from the thorns.

"Bella?"

Bellatrix raised her head to look at Andromeda, and she was stunned by the sheer hatred in her eyes.

"Decided to come back?" Bellatrix asked in a low voice, which shook with anger. "Little blood-traitor, wanted to come back home and make amends, did you?"

Andromeda stepped backwards. This wasn't the Bellatrix she knew. This wasn't the sister who Andromeda had loved. This wasn't even the woman who had told Andromeda to get out, she didn't ever want to see her again. This… this person was…

Bellatrix drew her wand and aimed it at Andromeda's heart, and Andromeda took several more steps backwards. "Bella-"

"It's far too late for you to come back here." Slowly, slowly, Bellatrix got up, advanced on Andromeda with wand raised and something indefinable and wild in her eyes. "You lost that chance months ago."

"I-"

"You don't know what you've done to us." Bellatrix's voice was a low, intense hiss. "You don't know what you've done to _me_."

She slashed her wand through the air, and Andromeda barely managed to dodge a spell that hit the green briar behind her, causing it to burst into flames.

"I as good as died for you, you ungrateful little brat!" Bellatrix shrieked. "I gave up my life to stop myself missing you, _do you understand that_?"

Andromeda shook her head wildly, stumbling backwards. "No, I don't understand-"

Bellatrix grabbed the sleeve of her dress, and yanked it back, showing Andromeda the symbol inscribed on her forearm. Andromeda cried out in fear and horror, and turned, fleeing the gardens, and the Manor, and the demon that had taken over her sister.

Only when she was far out on the fields, out of sight of the Manor, and Bellatrix having shown no sign of pursuing her, did Andromeda stop to catch her breath. She had recognized the mark on Bellatrix's arm as the Dark Mark, the sign Lord Voldemort used to mark his followers. Surely Bellatrix hadn't…

_I as good as died for you_.

Did she mean that she had sold her soul – or, something of that sort – to the Dark Lord, for Andromeda? To stop from missing Andromeda, that was what she said. Andromeda felt an incredible wave of guilt. Oh God, had she really driven Bellatrix to join the Death Eaters? Why? How could that have happened? She didn't understand how events could have spiralled so completely out of her control.

)O(

That night, Andromeda had a dream. She dreamed that Bellatrix was lying abed, pale as a ghost and so thin that her skin stretched over bones. Narcissa was there too, on the other side of Bellatrix's deathbed, though she did not acknowledge Andromeda.

Dream-Bellatrix reached out for Andromeda, her eyes glassy and unfocussed, but her arm steady as she grasped Andromeda's wrist.

"I think you're dying," Andromeda heard herself say. Dream-Bellatrix sank back on the pillows, and a death bell tolled, echoing through the dream.

"No," Andromeda said.

Bellatrix shook her head. "You told me I was dying."

"You're not dead, not yet."

"But you told me."

"I was wrong."

Dream-Bellatrix grinned, and the effect was grotesque, turning her face into a skull. "Your fault." She shut her dull eyes, and lay still.

Narcissa pulled the sheet over Bellatrix's head, shrouding her. She looked at Andromeda reproachfully before speaking.

"Hardhearted Andromeda."

)O(

_Fin_


End file.
